Warren Buffett 2025 March Madness Challenge Winner No Longer Has To Be Perfect: 'I Want To Give Away A Million Dollars'

The Oracle of Omaha is shaking things up this year with a rule change to his March Madness bracket challenge.

What Happened: In past years, billionaire Warren Buffett offered thousands of employees who work at various companies owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc BRKBRK the chance to win $1 billion — if they get a perfect bracket.

For the 2025 March Madness challenge — which starts with a round of 64 games on Thursday, March 20 — Buffett is now offering a $1 million prize for the person who picks 30 of the 32 first-round games correctly.

"I'm getting older,” Buffett told The Wall Street Journal. “I want to give away a million dollars to somebody while I'm still around as chairman.”

In 2024, around 65,000 of Berkshire's 400,000 employees participated in the challenge. With the odds increasingly better to win $1 million, it will be interesting to see if more people participate.

If no one claims the $1 million prize for at least 30 of the first 32 games picked correctly, a $250,000 prize is offered to the person who selects the most games right out of the 63 total matchups during the NCAA Men's National Basketball Tournament.

While Buffett often bets on making money, this time he's rooting to give away $1 million.

"Just think of the excitement it would create all over the place if somebody gets a million instead." I hope it's this year. We made it easier this year than ever."

Past Berkshire Hathaway employees have gotten at least 30 of the first 32 games correct, including Dwayne Johnson (not the actor/wrestler, but rather a steelworker at Precision Castparts). Johnson picked 31 of the first 32 games correctly and won $100,000 in 2017. If the rules from this year had been in play then, he would have won $1 million.

While the initial challenge to win $1 million got easier, Buffett also has a near-impossible challenge still in play. If anyone in the Berkshire Hathaway challenge correctly guesses the winners of the first 48 games correctly they win $1 million a year for life.

Read Also: Robinhood Launches March Madness Event Contracts With Kalshi: ‘Change The World Of Finance And Trading’

Why It's Important: As Benzinga has previously reported, the odds of selecting a perfect bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion if using a coinflip or basic 50/50 odds. The odds improve if using seeds, trends and basketball knowledge to around 1 in 128 billion.

Noone has ever had a perfect bracket in history based on public record.

The odds of winning Buffett's challenges depend on how many upsets there are in the early rounds. In 2019, one in every 3,080 brackets correctly predicted 30 of the first 32 games with minimal upsets. In 2021, one in every 1,578,469 brackets had 30 of the first 32 games correctly predicted based on numerous upsets.

The NCAA has only one bracket on record since 2016 that has correctly picked the first 48 games.

While Buffett is making it easier to win $1 million and a big prize, other companies will likely offer big prizes for perfect brackets, knowing the odds are near impossible.

This year, social media platform X, is offering an out-of-this-world prize for anyone that can correctly predict a perfect bracket. Partnering with Uber Eats and SpaceX, X is giving away a trip to Mars on SpaceX's Starship in the future.

Read Next:

• UConn Wins Back-To-Back NCAA Basketball Title: Here’s How Much You Could Have Made Following Biden, Obama In March Madness Bracket

Image: Shutterstock